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Football's Wembley is ideal setting for home

Posted on Monday, June 8, 2015

AFTER last weekend’s FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium the victorious Arsenal fans might have celebrated at a restaurant nearby in London’s only Designer Outlet discount shopping centre, while the Aston Villa fans made a fast exit home to Birmingham by direct train from Wembley Stadium station.

PUBLISHED: 08:19, Sun, Jun 7, 2015 | UPDATED: 08:31, Sun, Jun 7, 2015

Wembley has transformed since the stadium was rebuilt in the early 2000s

The London 2012 Olympics has changed all that. Much as the Olympic Legacy has boosted east London’s Stratford, the home of Olympic football is continuing to go for Gold. “Wembley had undergone regeneration of the iconic stadium in the early 2000s, and with that change into a stadium for the 21st century there was enormous improvement in transport and infrastructure such as the Tube, roads and rail networks,” says Paul Hogarth, head of residential at Quintain, a property regeneration specialist.

Working closely with the London Borough of Brent, Quintain has built the shopping centre, Hilton hotel, Cineworld and is now building 5,500 homes in Wembley Park over a 10-year period.

“The stadium is devised in such a way that 92,000 people can access or leave it in under an hour, and Quintain’s interest in Wembley arose in thinking strategically: if that improvement can help people leave a stadium, think what it could do for residents living close to the stadium,” says Hogarth.

“Until that time, nobody had really thought of Wembley as a residential destination, it was entertainment, sport and leisure and industry. So Quintain, in the late 1990s early 2000s, strategically placed an emphasis in investment, development and regeneration based on that premise.”

Wembley Park station is only a 12-minute Tube ride from Baker Street in central London on the Metropolitan Line, and 30 minutes from the financial sector at Canary Wharf on the Jubilee Line. Chiltern Railways trains take about 10 minutes to get to London Marylebone Station, and there is a direct route to Birmingham and beyond, while the North Circular is a five-minute drive away.

Emerald Gardens in Wembley Park will have stylish interior design and a resident's gym

“Wembley had undergone regeneration of the iconic stadium in the early 2000s, and with that change into a stadium for the 21st century there was enormous improvement in transport and infrastructure such as the Tube, roads and rail networks,” says Paul Hog

Quintain’s Forum House and Quadrant Court have already sold, with its Emerald Gardens apartments (020 3151 8601/northwestvillage.com) now for sale.

These surround a one-acre green space, although only one-bedroom fl ats are available from £366,000 of the 474 studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments.

Most have a private balcony or terrace and there will be a residents’ gym and clubroom, a private screening room and concierge when they are finished in spring/summer 2016.

The next development of one, two and three-bedroom apartments to be built will be called Alto, expected to be completed in 2017.

Sophie Habgood, Quintain’s residential marketing manager, says there are plans to expand the shopping facilities and adds: “Every time people come to the site they say, ‘This is not how it used to be’, they are really positive. Wembley Park is a place you can come for the day, not just to see an event at the stadium.”

BARRATT Homes (0844 811 4334/barratthomes.co.uk) also has plans for 211 one, two and threebedroom apartments off Olympic Way, expected this summer from £335,000 to £690,000; while Network Living (020 8997 3373/networkliving.co.uk) has a development of 81 apartments from £330,000 available through shared ownership, at nearby Ealing Road.

The potential for Wembley is huge. Of the six million square feet of land Quintain that has planning permission to develop, only two million have been built on so far.

“Wembley is increasingly a destination to visit and now to live and work,” says Hogarth. “The next five years will see further development. It will become a much more desirable place to live."